The Death of Sleep
by SniperCT
Summary: After months on a distant research station, Korra is ready to return home and see her daughter. But the ship drifts off course while the crew is frozen in hypersleep and they wake to something from humanity's most ancient fears. Sometimes the most terrifying things come from within. LoK meets Alien.
1. Off Course

The last thing Korra saw before she slid into the chamber were kind green eyes. In hypersleep, the mind wiled away the years in dreams. It was the only way to stay sane in this strange death of sleep. Those beautiful green eyes laughed with her, and watched her and many times Korra would fall into the woman's embrace as she had one cold and hurried night before the beginning of their long journey.

Sometimes, Korra found herself flying, skimming the surface of the ocean and beating shimmering blue wings to keep aloft. Other times, she directed her own dreams on where she wanted to go and what she wanted to see. She filled them with her friends and her crewmates and took them on grand adventures. In her favorite, she could control the elements as though they were a natural part of her. She'd dream about her daughter, seven when she'd last seen her. That was thirteen months ago for Korra but Katara would be twelve when they arrived back on Earth. A virtual stranger.

Consciousness returned to Korra accompanied by discomfort in her stomach and the world spinning as she tried to sit up.

"Good morning, sleepyhead."

The soft, almost sultry voice made Korra lift her head, and she looked into Asami Sato's green eyes. She immediately forgot her dizziness, forcing a lopsided grin onto her face. "Hey, you. Couldn't have waited ten more minutes? We were having a _very_ interesting dance."

Next to her, a medium-sized white dog yawned and stretched. Korra scritched her fingers into Naga's fur, then hugged an arm around her. "Good morning to you too, girl!"

"Flirt." Asami kissed Korra's forehead, but there was something stiff about her movements. Korra searched her eyes, a puzzled expression crossing her face.

She looked around, realizing the others were still in stasis. She turned back to Asami, who hadn't changed out of the underwear she'd worn into sleep. Asami's skin was slick with sweat despite the chill in the air, and it looked like she was shaking. "What's wrong? Why am I awake first?"

Asami put a towel around Korra's shoulders, and moved towards her locker. "The computer will wake the rest of the crew in a few minutes, but there's something you need to see first. I wanted to give you … " She sighed heavily. "Time."

Korra watched her dress, trying to read her movements. She caught the pants that were thrown in her direction and pulled them on, then unsteadily got to her feet. "Asami."

The Japanese woman turned her head towards a readout over the hypersleep pods, and Korra followed her pods were arranged in a circle, each pod sprouting from a center mechanism like the petals of a flower. The digital display on top read seven-thousand, two hundred and fifteen days. Korra's blood went as cold as as the air around her, and Asami's quick reflexes were the only reason she didn't fall over and hit her head on a console. "No.. No no no."

Nineteen years, almost twenty. It was so absurd that Korra couldn't hold back a choked, bitter laugh. "She's gonna be _older_ than me."

It wasn't going to be okay, and Asami wasn't about to lie to Korra about it. She watched Naga try to comfort Korra, the woman wrapping her arms around the dog. "We've been adrift. That's all I know for sure until Varrick gets a look at the logs and I can get into the engines."

"How long will it take to get to Earth from here?"

"Once we're under way?" Asami's tongue flicked out as she bent over a computer. "... Seven hundred days. Probably a little longer. We're way off course."

The pods began to open and cycle, and Korra turned to watch them. Everyone had families that were going to be twenty-two years older when they got to see them again. Families that probably thought they were dead. On her left, Asami sank heavily into a chair, an obvious mask on her face that Korra was oddly grateful for.. She felt Asami's hand on her shoulder.

Crewmembers groaned as they wrestled with the same sleep-sickness that had gripped Korra at first. One by one, pods flashed green.

All except one. Wei Beifong's pod remained silent and black on the display. Korra let go of Asami's hand. "Something's wrong, I'm going to check on him."

"It was fine two minutes ago. Responding green and everything." Swiveling in her chair, Asami tried to bring the pod to life, but it wouldn't respond to commands. She got up, moving to intercept Wei's siblings.

Korra raced around the pods. As she reached Wei's pod, her bare feet crunched on glass and she stumbled, nearly falling into his pod. The glass was shattered and Wei's body lay still and lifeless. There was blood everywhere.

Hearing someone behind her, Korra pushed away from the pod and heedless of the pain in her feet, grabbed for Wei's brother as he rushed forward. "Wing! No, you don't want to look!"

Someone helped her wrestle Wing away. She could see that Asami had hold of their sister, Opal, and the person who'd grabbed onto Wing was their Captain. She didn't bother with a salute.

Kuvira held Wing in an iron grip. If the hibernation sickness was affecting her she wasn't letting on, but then Kuvira had the more time in space than the rest of them combined. "Everyone stand down." She nodded at Korra once Wing stopped resisting. "Report."

Korra looked at the gathered crew. Opal had silent tears on her cheeks and Wing looked shell-shocked and devastated. Everyone else just looked confused, except Varrick. Varrick had a curious expression on his face.

"We're twenty years behind schedule and thousands of A.U.s off course. Wei's pod sustained some kind of damage, and the computer woke us up early." Korra was surprised that she was able to break the news with a steady voice.

"Wei's pod was reporting fine until the rest of you started to wake up," Asami clarified. "But there must have been some kind of anomaly to trigger the wake-up call."

"Varrick, get into the logs, I want to know exactly what happened. Zhu-Li, help me with Wei." Kuvira then pointed at Korra and Asami. "You two, take the Beifongs to help you inspect the engines. A distraction will do you some good. Once you're done with your tasks report to the galley."

A chorus of 'yes ma'am's' rang through the bay.

"Sit still." Opal tried to get a better hold on Korra's foot. She sniffled, and continued to work on the glass cuts.

"I'm trying!" Korra bit back any more of a response. It was just her foot. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. "I can take care of this myself, you know."

"It's okay. Please. Let me." Something in Opal's voice made Korra relent, and she leaned her head back against the steel bulkhead. Turning her head, she opened an eye to watch Asami and Wing work. The whole situation left her feeling drained, even Naga was flopped out on the deck nearby. She turned back to look at Opal, then reached into her pocket to pull out a picture. It was well worn, but Katara's smile shone out as bright as the day she'd taken it. Her ex-husband, Mako, looked uncomfortable, but then the cop had never been the most at ease person she'd ever met, especially in front of a camera.

"Done," Opal said softly. She crawled over and sat next to Korra. Korra put her arm around the younger woman and squeezed lightly.

"Thanks."

"It was supposed to be this adventure. Like mom used to have before she settled down," Opal whispered. "We'd get home, and they'd all be waiting. And now they probably think we're dead and Wei is…"

"Shh…" Korra kissed the side of Opal's face. "We'll figure it out. And we'll have a great big reunion."

Opal's eyes fell onto the picture in Korra's hand. "She's cute. And he's handsome." Anything was better than thinking about her brother right now.

"Katara and Mako," Korra explained. She tried to smile, but the only emotion she could drum up was grief. "She was...kind of an accident. But I wanted to make sure she was taken care of. That she wouldn't want for anything. That's why I was out here. This was my second job and it was supposed to be the last one."

"Adventure," Wing muttered, settling down next to his sister. "They tell you it's dangerous, but you don't think about it until something happens."

Watching them from her perch on the engines, Asami chewed on her lip. She knew what it was like to lose family. Asami had no one waiting for her - this job had been her life until Korra had come into it. She'd looked forward to meeting Mako and Bolin and Katara, and all the people Korra had talked about. The only person before them had been Kuvira. "We'll get home. Then we can figure it all out from there. You guys just take a break." She pulled a pair of goggles down over her eyes, and leaned back into her work.

Korra rubbed her palms on her knees, then hazarded an attempt to stand up. Her feet were still hurting, but nothing she couldn't power through. "I think I've had enough of a break." She looked at Opal and Wing. "This will go faster if we help Ms. Sato out."

After some hesitation, the Beifongs got to their feet and followed Korra to the engine. No one spoke again until the work was complete, and Asami slid down to the deck. "Everyone step back while I fire her up."

The engines sputtered once, then started to spin. Asami kept one eye on the engine and another on a readout, until she was mostly satisfied. She nodded at Korra. "Report back, I'll be fine down here."

"Are you sure?"

"I just want to make sure there aren't any further problems. And see if I can't figure out what shut us down." Asami's eyes darted to Opal, then back to Korra's, and Korra nodded back.

"Okay. Come on, let's report back to Kuvira and .. maybe Zhu Li will have some answers. Naga, stay here and keep an eye on Asami for me."

Opal put her arms around Wing as the three of them shuffled into the lift. Korra remained silent, staring forward. When they arrived back on the main deck, she headed straight for the infirmary as quickly as her tender feet would allow her.

"Don't move so fast," Opal chided. "Just because we sealed the cuts doesn't mean you can't reopen them."

"You're not the doctor," Korra teased, but she did slow down a little, because she knew Opal was right.

There was a sheet pulled over Wei, and Kuvira, Varrick and Zhu Li were gathered around a display. Korra cleared her throat. "Engines are online. Asami is trying to figure out what took them offline to begin with. Did Varrick find anything in the logs?"

"Not a thing," Varrick declared. "The logs are as clean as a baby's behind. Or is that smooth as a baby's behind.. baby's behind aside, we experienced a power surge and the systems shut down the engines to protect them."

Wing stepped forward, his arms folded tightly over his chest and Opal's hand tangled in his shirt. "Do you think the surge damaged Wei's pod?"

Varrick sobered up uncharacteristically, then glanced at Kuvira, who nodded. He turned to Zhu Li. "Zhu Li, show them the thing."

Zhu Li stepped aside to show them a computer generated image of Wei's body. Korra stepped closer, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. There was a hole in Wei's chest, as though something had burst outward from within.

"What the hell killed my brother?!"

"I don't know." Kuvira put her hand on Wing's shoulders. "But we're going to go through the video and find out."


	2. Sacrifice

"So there was some kind of power surge," Asami murmured. She was sitting cross-legged on top of an engine, a thin wire leading from a data pad and into an access panel. "But what caused it? Something doesn't add up." She turned the pad towards the dog lying next to her. "What do you think, Naga? What does this look like to you?"

Naga lifted her head and sniffed at the pad before giving it a good lick. Asami scrunched up her face. "Thank you for your input."

The dog suddenly stood abruptly, the fur all along her back rising. She lowered her head and growled. Asami had the indisputable sense that something was watching them. Naga whined, barking loudly and alternating between growling and more barking. Something suddenly grabbed onto Asami's shoulders and yanked her up towards a ventilation shaft. She hit the metal hard, crying out in pain and fear as she spread her body as wide as she could to keep herself from being pulled into the shaft.

Her jumpsuit tore, and she was falling. She landed hard on the engine and rolled off, sprawling on the deck. She could see something shadowy and inhuman moving above her in the vent. Pulling herself to her feet, she shouted, "Naga! Come on! Run!"

The _something_ landed on the deck behind her, claws clacking on the metal. Asami ran faster than she ever had in her life. She slapped her hand on an alarm before zig-zagging towards the lift, Naga racing ahead of her. Asami glanced behind her, and didn't see her attacker. She reached the lift, and Naga's warning bark was the only thing that saved her life as a sharp, jagged tail jabbed into the ground in front of her. The creature, the _alien_ was on the wall above the lift. It was as black as space, shiny and slick. It was too dark to make out any features but the teeth in it's jaw as it opened it's mouth to hiss at her. It was like staring death in the face.

"What the hell is that thing?"

They were huddled around the screen as Varrick reversed the video and replayed it. Something bursting out of Wei's pod, and scrambling off camera. Korra brought her fist to her mouth.

The lights in the infirmary dimmed slightly as alarms went off throughout the ship. Korra's head snapped up. "..Asami!"

Her feet had her moving before her brain have even told them what to do. Someone called her name and she heard people running behind her. Every step made the soles of her feet scream, but she ignored it. She'd almost reached the lift when a maintenance hatch broke open, and Asami, Naga in her arms, fell out of it.

Asami sat up, panting heavily. "r..run..!"

Something big and dark clattered in the maintenance shaft. Korra pulled Asami to her feet, but they were too slow. The creature climbed into the corridor, raising itself to it's full height. The light overhead shone around it, casting it's shadow over Korra and the others and obscuring its features.

On Korra's right, Wing bolted forward, swinging a pipe at the creature. He ducked low under its claws and gracefully rolled across the deck and behind it. While it was distracted, Asami fumbled for the hatch door, grasping into it and jabbing it into the thing's back. Blood splurted. The skin on the right side of Asami's face started to bubble and burn and she fell against the bulkhead before sliding to the ground. Doubled over, Asami's agonized screams rang off of the steel plating.

Wing let out a surprised gasp, as though all the air were rushing out of his body. He hung suspended on the end of the alien's tail. It darted back into the shaft, taking a still twitching Wing with it.

Only the sound of Asami's whimpering filled the air of the corridor. Korra knelt down, gathering her into her arms and backed away from the hatch. "We should…"

"Infirmary," Kuvira agreed.

They jogged back, wary of every hatch along the way.

"Where's Wing?" Opal asked, before she saw Asami. "Oh my god."

"Zhu Li?" Varrick said, staring wide-eyed. "Thing? Do it?"

"Its blood is some kind of acid." Kuvira secured the door. "It got Wing. I'm sorry." She ran a hand through her hair. It was the first time since Korra had known her that she'd seen Kuvira look frazzled. The captain took a step towards Asami, then stopped.

Korra squeezed Asami's hand as Zhu Li treated her. With Wing and Wei gone, that made her the second in command. "Lock down the ship. We should all stick together or in twos and threes. We're going to go level by level and room by room until we've flushed this thing out."

"If we can capture it," Varrick said, speaking faster the more excited he became. "Can you _imagine_. Acid for BLOOD! Prehensile tail!" He flailed his hands as he spoke, as though playing charades. "Lives as a parasite in the host and then just BURSTS out fully formed! You know, Asami... A direct hit from that blood and you'd be dead. Your whole head, just eaten away! Now that woulda been a sight."

"That _thing_ killed my brothers." Opal's voice shook with barely contained rage. "That _thing_ hurt our friend. Its _hunting us_. Why the _fuck_ do we want to _capture it!_ "

Kuvira intercepted her as she lunged toward Varrick. "We're not capturing it."

"Lure it to the airlock. Blow it out." Asami pushed herself up on her elbows. The right side of her face was heavily bandaged, but she pushed Zhu Li's hand away when she tried to inject her with something.

Varrick scratched his chin. "Someone will have to be bait. Not it!"

"Sir, your bravery knows no bounds," Zhu Li said.

"I'll be the bait. This is my ship." Kuvira let go of Opal. "Asami, can you walk?"

Asami swung her legs off the bed. "Yeah." She gave Opal a comforting look, taking her hand and squeezing it, trying to assure her that everything would be fine. Hoping she'd calm down. It was as much for herself as for the other woman. Asami was shaking a little, and the pain in her face couldn't be categorized in words.

"Korra, take Asami, prep the airlock. There's guns in my locker, I'll give you access. If you see that thing, don't engage."

"Don't worry, I don't want to fight that thing unless I have to."

Korra was kind of hoping she got to fight that thing. For Wing and Wei and for Asami's face. She looked over from where she stood guarding the corridor. "I'm sorry about your face. You're still beautiful, you know."

A smile ghosted across Asami's lips. "It's okay. Just kind of regretting not taking that painkiller."

"I mean it, you're still gorgeous! How close are you to being done?" Korra glanced down at Naga, who was starting to pace nervously. It only made her more anxious.

"Almost there. We should be able to trigger the airlock remotely. I've also overridden the safety protocols, so it will explosively decompress."

"And send that bastard on a one-way trip to oblivion."

Kuvira's voice broke over the radio. Her words cut in and out, but Korra made out 'coming' 'airlock' 'alien'. She flicked the safety off of the gun. "Asami we need to get out of here right now!"

"Fifteen seconds!"

"We don't have fifteen seconds!"

Naga started to bark just as Kuvira came into view, the alien skittering along the ceiling behind her. Korra leaned out, shooting twice and hoping to startle it enough to give Kuvira a few more feet between her and the alien. "Asami, hurry!"

She didn't wait for a response, grabbing the engineer and pulling her out of the airlock. They ran across the corridor. Korra turned to watch as Kuvira skidded into the airlock. The captain turned, firing three times at the alien. Its blood splattered on the deck and it hissed, lashing out with its tail. The appendage cut through Kuvira's wrist and she dropped her gun as the alien leapt in after her.

"Close the door! Close the door!" Kuvira's voice rang across the metal. Asami hesitated, and Korra grabbed the remote and pressed the switch. The airlock door slam shut.

"But Kuvira-"

"She knew this was a risk." Korra rushed to the window and looked in. Kuvira had her arms around the alien. The skin on her neck was bubbling from exposure to its blood but that only seemed to make her hold on tighter as its tail slashed and stabbed at her.

She made eye contact with Korra, and nodded once. Korra pressed the second button on the remote. The outer hatch swung open and both Kuvira and the alien were gone.

Asami leaned heavily on Korra's back, wrapping her arms around her waist and squeezing tightly. Korra turned, meeting Asami's eyes. She lifted her fingers to wipe at Asami's tears. "There's still a lot to do. Lets get back. You're going to rest now. That's an order."

They walked slowly along the path that Kuvira had come. Now that the immediate crisis was over, Korra felt exhaustion threatening to take hold. But she had to keep everyone together. Find Wing's body, get the ship back on course.

It was too dark, red light lining the corridor to the infirmary. The rest of the lights were out, and Korra slowed even more, drawing her gun again. The door was sealed, and a readout indicated that the atmosphere inside had been vented. Korra placed her hand on the glass and looked in. Varrick lay on his back, his ribcage ripped open by a great force from within. Someone lay facedown on the floor near the door, and there was a lot of blood and a viscous white liquid all over the upended equipment.

Silently, Asami routed air back into the room. Once the pressure was equalized, the door rotated open.

Opal looked almost peaceful where she lay. Korra knelt, gently turning her over. Hot tears streaked down her face as she pulled the young woman into her arms and held her tightly.

Asami exhaled a shuddering breath, and stepped past them. She followed the trail of white liquid until it led her to Zhu Li's severed torso. The woman twitched, one eye rolling up to look at her. Half of her face had been smashed in and her voice was garbled, "I-I-I-I hello."

"You're an _android_." Asami leaned down, adjusting Zhu Li's head so she could look at her better. "Korra, you better come over here."

"Ar-ar-artificicicicial persperspersonon." Zhu Li corrected.

Red-eyed, Korra came over. "What happened?" She'd worry about why no one had told them that Zhu Li was a synthetic later.

"Varrick wa-waswas infefefefested. Xenenenomorph burstststst out. Attacked m-m-m-m-m-me." Zhu Li's voice made a kind of grinding, bubbling sound. "Oo _oo_ pal vent-ventvent air."

"It's not here…" Korra looked around cautiously.

"The compacompc-ny. Planan. Access code ni-nine six six b-bet-ta-ta." She lifted her still working hand, pointing at Asami's chest. "Scan. Scan. Scan."

Asami looked down at her chest, then at Korra. Zhu Li continued to repeat the word, each time growing weaker and weaker. Asami felt her stomach suddenly clench. "Korra get on the bed."

"What?"

"Get on the bed _now_."

The fear in Asami's voice was palpable, so Korra did as she was asked. "Okay."

Starting the machine, Asami kept an eye on the readout as it began to move up Korra's body. She prayed to whatever god was listening that she wouldn't find anything. she didn't know what she'd do if she found something.

The scanner went up and down twice, and Asami about broke down from relief. "You're clear. You're clear." She leaned over, kissing Korra and clinging to her for a few precious seconds.

"Thank god, okay, your turn." Korra sat up, her grip on Asami tight enough to cause the other woman discomfort. But they were all the other had right now. Korra hopped off the bed, and walked to where Opal still lay. While Asami got into the scanner, she carried Opal to another bed, and pulled a sheet up over her head.

Asami slid onto the bed. She wasn't that afraid. Korra was okay. She'd be okay and no matter what they found on this scan, Korra was clean. And as far as Asami was concerned that was all that mattered. Closing her eyes, she said, "I'm sorry."

"None of this is your fault." Korra stroked the top of Opal's head, then turned back to her girlfriend. "If we can believe Zhu Li, it's the Company's fault."

"Yeah." Asami sighed.

Naga started to bark, and she snapped her eyes open. Crouching on top of the scanner and staring right at her was the new alien. It was smaller than the first one, but already grown several feet long.

Korra threw an incubator at it, and Asami rolled off of the bed as the scanner shorted out. The alien hissed and fled out the door.

"It was here the whole time!"

"It can survive without air?"

"Or just hold its breath for awhile." Korra pulled Asami to her feet. "New plan. I think that eventually it's going to come for us. So we need it to come for us on our terms, not it's terms."

"I could force a low-level radiation leak below decks. That will push it up to this level. And if we can seal off all the extra cabins that will lead it right to the command center. We can set up a rabbit hole right to the escape pods if we have to. It even force it into one and jettison the pod." They could figure out how to blow up the escape pod once it was free. "We can do most of that from command." Asami started for the door. "And maybe we can find out what the Company knew about these things."

Korra lingered a few more moments. Zhu Li's eye had faded, her arm lifted and her finger still pointing. Opel and Wei's bodies lay still on their beds, and she didn't have the stomach to move Varrick. Korra thought it would be a miracle if she lived to see another day, let alone get home to see how her daughter grew up.


	3. Perchance to Dream

It was the longest two days of Korra's life. They'd sealed all the shafts and essentially separated the command deck from the rest of the ship. First the radiation leak in the engine room, then the slow, steady removal of air from the other decks.

Asami had plenty to occupy herself as she had terabytes of files to parse through. She'd tried every search she could think of, but thus far nothing had come up. "Korra, do you remember what else Zhu Li said?"

"Xenosomething?"

"Xenosomething." Asami pouted out her lip and began a search for anything beginning with the letters X-E-N-O. "Oh here we go."

"What did you find?" Korra leaned over Asami, resting her chin on the top of her head.

"Ever hear of a ship called the Nostromo?"

"Nope."

"They had a problem with one of those things, too. The company basically set them up." Asami scrolled down. "They really, _really_ want one of those things."

"Think Varrick was in on it?" He had come as part of the package with Zhu Li and he'd been way into the idea of studying the alien.

"He almost seemed like the kind of man who'd want one of those things inside him." Grimacing, Asami looked through more of the files.

Korra made a disgusted noise. "Okay now I've seen more than enough on how those things reproduce."

Asami made a face, and then opened her mouth to comment.

"I get it!" Korra pushed down on Asami's head. "You don't need to spell it out."

Asami turned in her chair and was rewarded with a smile from Korra. It was the first time she'd seen her smile since before the alien. Xenomorph. Whatever. She reached up and cupped Korra's face, and held her there for as long as she could get away with. Korra stared back down at her, then brought her own hands to Asami's face, careful of the bandages.

The spell had to break eventually, and Korra waved a hand at the right side of Asami's face. "We need to..change that. Clean it. And stuff."

Asami nodded. "I know. How are your feet?"

Korra sat down next to her and opened the first aide kit. "Hurts, but I'll deal. They haven't opened up again yet." She started to unwrap the bandage. "Hopefully I don't have to run too hard."

"We might have to." Asami couldn't meet Korra's eyes. She was more vain than she cared to admit and after seeing how far down into the ship the acid had eaten through she'd nearly had a panic attack. Varrick hadn't exaggerated about the dissolving her head away thing.

Gently, Korra kissed Asami's damaged cheek, then applied a fresh bandage. "That's going to make for an interesting scar. A nice story to tell at dinner."

"If you want to gross everyone out, maybe." She caught Korra's hand as she finished with the bandage. "...Thanks."

It felt like weeks had passed since they'd come out of hypersleep. Since the twins had gone, since Kuvira had sacrificed herself for her crew, since Opal's desperate act of vengeful defiance. Since the second alien had disappeared deep into the ship. Asami had been close to Kuvira once. Her death hurt. All of their deaths hurt.

"That other ship. The Nostromo. Did anyone survive?"

"Warrant Officer Ripley. She and her cat were the only survivors. They…" Asami went quiet, knowing the next part would only upset Korra further."

"Asami, tell me."

"They were adrift in space for nearly sixty years. They were found only a few years before we left for Earth. There isn't much in the files we have access to after that."

Korra deflated, leaning over until her forehead was resting on her knees. Twenty years lost already. Another sixty was unthinkable. She'd be meeting her grandchildren. Her _Great_ -grandchildren. Seeing Katara and Mako again. Bolin. All of her odd extended family. It had been that hope that had kept her going.

"Hey. We'll kill that thing, and we'll set course and arrive back on Earth in two years, not sixty." Asami squeezed Korra's shoulder, and shook her lightly. "The plan will work."

Eyes opening, Korra lifted her head. Naga was at attention, her vision focused on something near the door. A shadow moved, and then was gone. Heart pounding, Korra stood slowly, picking up one of the wrenches they'd secured as weapons. "It's here."

"Okay." Asami's voice shook. "Ready?"

"Lets do it."

The door swished open, and the xenomorph seemed to be momentarily shocked. Its arms were raised as though it had just been about to bash the door in. It looked at them and Korra felt as though it was staring right at her. It belonged in her nightmares, something vaguely human yet clearly not. It was uncomfortable to look at, and terrifying all at the same time.

Korra bolted left and Asami ran right. She could feel the wounds on her feet reopening, and it nearly made her stumble. Naga barked and growled and then the dog gave out a yelp and went silent.

She glanced behind her. The alien was nearly on her, and she couldn't see either Naga or Asami. It jumped onto the ceiling, tail cutting along Korra's shoulder as she dove into the escape pod.

The door hissed shut. It wasn't supposed to do that yet. Across the command deck, Korra saw Asami holding Naga as the hatch to the other pod closed. One less thing to worry about, now she just needed to adjust her plan. Get the alien into the pod, get out of the pod, launch the pod. Korra backed away from the hatch, her eyes on the alien as it raised its hands and started to pound on the door. All she needed to do was open the door on a down swing, cause the creature to stumble, and then she could escape.

At the first blow, the door immediately bulged inward. A second blow dislodged it completely and it crashed into Korra, the reinforced glass of the porthole shattering from the impact. A heavy weight pressed down on top of her, the only thing between her and the xenomorph the remains of the door. She could hear it clawing at the metal, and then it shoved its head through the hole. Sweat poured down Korra's face as its mouth opened, a second set of teeth protruding out from some kind of inner jaw. It stopped a mere inch from her nose, snapping at her as she struggled to push back against the weight of the writhing monster.

Korra glanced to her right, and then tried to reach for a lever. She pulled it partially down, and the pod shuddered. Air started to hiss and the alien sat bolt upright, looking back at the door. Korra yanked on the lever again, and then several more times, until the pod detached from the ship. The sudden suction of air pulled at the alien. At the last moment its inner jaw latched onto Korra's shin and dragged her along towards the waiting oblivion of space.

It tore away when Korra's hands grabbed onto a door. She looked behind her (or below her, it was hard to tell) and couldn't see the alien. The pod was drifting, spinning away from the ship as Korra hauled herself back in and scrambled to get into a suit. The welcome feeling of oxygen in her lungs was almost dizzying.

"Korra! Korra!"

"Asami?" Korra leaned her head back against the bulkhead, not sure if the radio was working or if it was her imagination. She closed her eyes. "Promise me you'll find Katara. Tell her I'm sorry."

A new weight on Korra's chest startled her awake. A warm, wet tongue lapped at her face and she pushed herself up. "Naga! You're okay!"

Naga's fur had been shaved around her middle and she was wrapped up with a bandage. A make-shift cone went around her neck, but she was still a welcome sight. "I thought I might have lost you."

"She was really brave." Asami sat on the edge of the bed, and put her hand on Korra's cheek. "Just like you."

"...How?"

"I refitted one of the loaders with rockets and used it to get to you and bring you back." She made it sound like it was no big deal. "We're already underway. We'll need to go under soon."

"What about the xenomorph?"

"Long gone."

Korra settled back into the bed, gently holding Naga to her. "I don't think I want to go under, Asami."

"We have to, there aren't enough supplies to last two years."

"What if we relive this? Over and over and over again until we wake up?"

"Sweetheart…" Asami smoothed her hands through Korra's hair. "I'll be right next to you. Naga will be in there with you too. We'll get through it." She smiled brilliantly, and stood. "I can't wait to meet Katara and Mako."

"Guess I'll be meeting them all over again." Korra gently dislodged Naga and sat up, putting her feet on the floor. "How are you so calm about this, Asami?"

"I already had my freak out while you were out."

"Just checking." Korra got to her feet and hobbled over to where Asami had moved. Just once, before they slept. Just once before they woke, before the questions and the inquiries, before the uncomfortable reality of being younger than her own daughter, of seeing her friends and family grown old. Just once, without the ghosts of the dead haunting them. Just once, she wanted to kiss Asami again, the way she had a few weeks and twenty years ago when the future had been bright.

Too soon, Korra laid down in the hypersleep capsule, Naga secure under one arm. She watched Asami move about. Memorized the shape and sight of her, hoping to grab onto that once she was out. She even memorized the scar that marred nearly half of Asami's face.

"Good night." Asami leaned in, her lips brushing Korra's. "I love you. I'll see you when we wake up." Those tired green eyes, kind and empathetic, were the last thing Korra saw before she slipped away into the death of sleep, and the nightmares that surely waited for her.


End file.
